FROM HIS COLUMN IN THE PEOPLE:
"I cannot say any more at this moment because there are still matters that need to be resolved between my lawyer and Leeds."
Though he believes he was sacked purely because of his opinions, we can also reveal that behind the scenes O'Leary's reputation has been ruthlessly sabotaged by a series of tactics which brought about his shock downfall.
-A CAMPAIGN to discredit him, led by a handful of players.
-CHAIRMAN Peter Ridsdale unwittingly endorsing the mischief-making by listening to team complaints about the manager.
-ONE senior board member calling Ridsdale to demand O'Leary's sacking "for not doing as he was told".
-ANOTHER player, England full-back Danny Mills, moaning about an O'Leary column that appeared in the Sunday People.
-AN IMMEDIATE request from the dressing-room to appoint Terry Venables as his replacement.
A friend close to O'Leary said last night: "He cannot accept what has been going on. He is shocked and outraged."
People Sport has learned that the decision to sack the manager was taken on Wednesday following a series of calls among Leeds directors.
"We cannot have this man criticising us in public. I thought we had made it clear that he had to be sympathetic to our financial position," was the tone of one call to supremo Ridsdale.
MY BABIES
Cartoon in mirror 3 pm column has PF going 'I'm just a young ex-manager taking my first steps in unemployment' arf
LET'S ALL LAUGH AT LEEDS PART 95
line of the day from Dan Taylor in guardian: "oloiry's inanity has been such
that he gives the impression he has actually written more books than he's
read'
LET'S ALL LAUGH AT LEEDS PART 96
song for next season: we've one player bigger than your club - mirror reports Rio is worth 35 million but the city now only values LUAFC at 22 million!!!
LET'S ALL LAUGH AT LEEDS PART 97
Tony Cascarino: O'leary's the kind who buys the chairman's wife flowers at xmas' - Dan Taylor of Guardian adds: 'not this Christmas, however...'
LET'S ALL LAUGH AT LEEDS PART 98
O'Leary is so unpopular in dressing room that last week a player refused at a public function to sign a book for a fan cos O' Loiry was on cover.
STILL LEARNING
From The Observer:
Some things in football never change. Sir Alex Ferguson gives some unlucky person the hairdryer treatment, Arsene Wenger never actually sees his players' fouls and David O'Leary always produces a reason why his Leeds United still haven't matured into the championship-winning team so many people have been expecting for years. The Premiership's king of excuses always found someone or something to blame for his team's under-achievement.
Injuries. Repeated indiscipline by key personnel. Suspensions. A lack of hunger among certain players. Too thin a squad to truly compete. Having two of his key first-teamers facing two lengthy criminal trials within a year. The nasty, disruptive media and their spitefulness towards his team.
It always was an unsustainable strategy and last week the Leeds board, tired of all O'Leary's explanations for under-achievement, finally lost patience with a manager who gladly accepted the plaudits for success, but seemed unwilling to accept responsibility when things went wrong. The only real surprise, given how disastrous last season proved on and off the field at Elland Road, is that the Irishman did not get his P45 sooner. Interestingly, club sources all cite different key moments at which the Leeds directors decided that O'Leary would have to go.
Some say it was as long ago as last December, when extracts from the manager's ill-advised Leeds United On Trial appeared in print within 48 hours of the end of Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate's second lengthy trial at Hull Crown Court over the attack on Asian student Sarfraz Najeib. Appearing to profit from this traumatic episode impressed nobody. Nor did the book's title.
THEY FOUND ONE THAT READ AND WRITE
Bin Lids fan, James Brown in The Observer:
When Eric Cantona left Leeds United, every fan was in shock. It was our JFK assassination moment: where were you? I doubt many will reminisce about David O'Leary's departure. I know where I was. 'O'Leary quits Leeds' appeared on my email 10 minutes before the news broke. The email was addressed to numerous fans, but none responded with any complaints. There was a sense of disappointment, then 'why?' and then 'who are we getting next?' Nobody suggested going to Elland Road to firebomb the banqueting suite. By comparison, if Howard Wilkinson had sold Cantona in medieval times he would still be hanging from the family stand.
Amazingly, whereas Cantona was here only 15 minutes, O'Leary had rebuilt Leeds into the talk of Europe. Such lack of outrage shows how wary Leeds fans had become of the manager they loved just months ago.
We were humiliated by Cardiff in the FA Cup and then went on a crawl that left us without a win in two months. Leeds, with a £90 million squad, thrashed by Liverpool and Chelsea, drawing with Charlton, Everton and Middlesbrough. This period was crucial in losing the fans and suggested O'Leary had already lost the players' belief. He was repeatedly granted funds to fill the bench with multi-million pound supersubs yet, when the time came to bring these players into stale matches, he refused to use them.
Many have known for ages that he had lost it. The ill-timed book was one thing, but Leeds fans were more concerned with his attitude towards the squad. He set about his own players publicly. He relegated Robbie Keane to the subs bench and repeatedly refused to bring him on. He gave David Batty permission to drive, not fly, to Eindhoven then dropped him to the role of unused sub, despite playing him in 24 of the previous 25 games.
James Brown is editor of JACK magazine and fanzine Leeds, Leeds, Leeds.
WHO WILL REPLACE HIM?
Several tabs and the more reliable Observer say that the players have requested that Venables should be approached. Ridsdale is quoted: “I have always been an admirer of Terry Venables as a coach and he is on my list.
The Mirror reckon that Leeds will go for Martin O'Neill and if that fails, they will turn to McCarthy.
PIG DAUGHTER
DOL's daughter, that Jade from Big Brother has been chucked by her boyfriend, who rants in The People: